The Holy Land, Mariejois.
"Gorosei!"
"Gorosei! Something terrible has happened!"
An agent clad in a black suit sprinted toward a magnificent, colossal palace, his voice tight with panic as he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"It's someone from CP1!"
"What kind of disaster could have happened?"
"Don't tell me the king of a World Government member nation was abducted or assassinated by pirates on their way to the summit?"
"No way, right? I heard the Marines deployed nearly the entire strength of Marineford specifically to escort and protect those kings!"
The sentries and guards standing watch outside the palace watched the agent charge into the grand hall. They exchanged bewildered glances, unable to keep themselves from whispering in hushed, urgent tones.
They still vividly remembered that the last time a member of CP1 had lost their composure to this degree was two years ago, right when the Red Hair Pirates made contact with the Whitebeard Pirates. Not long after that fateful meeting, a world-shattering conflict erupted at Marineford, the Paramount War!
"It looks like... an absolute crisis has unfolded."
Just then, accompanied by a rich, effortlessly lazy voice, a tall and heavily muscled, handsome man with curly black hair materialized outside the palace doors. A Justice coat with striking green cuffs draped over his shoulders, accented by golden, wheat-ear-shaped epaulets.
Upon seeing this figure, the surrounding guards instantly straightened, expressions of deep reverence taking over their faces as they saluted in unison. "Admiral Ryokugyu!"
"Gorosei! The Big Mom Pirates have declared war on the Chris Pirates!"
Inside the magnificent, sprawling palace hall, the Gorosei were either standing or sitting in their respective positions. The CP1 agent who had burst through the doors was now half-kneeling on the polished floor, panting heavily as he delivered the staggering intelligence to the five elders before him.
"Nani?!"
"How is that possible?!"
"What kind of joke is this?!"
The shocking news struck like a detonated piece of Dyna Stone, completely blindsiding the Gorosei. For a brief second, they even questioned if their own ears were playing tricks on them.
"At ten o'clock this morning, 'Golden Ring' Aeridar infiltrated Totto Land and threw Whole Cake Island into absolute chaos, engaging in a massive, direct clash with Big Mom herself!"
"Furthermore, approximately one hundred thousand troops from the Chris Pirates' animated army launched a coordinated assault on Whole Cake Island. As we speak, the entirety of Whole Cake Island has been reduced to a wasteland of smoldering ruins, suffering catastrophic damage. The Big Mom Pirates have lost countless homies in the fray, and numerous high-ranking officers and combatants, including the Sweet Commanders, have been severely injured!"
"There is even an unverified report claiming that the head of the Sweet Commanders, Katakuri, has been critically wounded, and that Big Mom herself sustained non-negligible injuries!"
The agent rushed through his sentences, summarizing the sweeping, highly detailed intelligence in a few rapid breaths.
The Cipher Pol network was practically omnipresent across the globe, but there were always exceptions—bastions of the New World where infiltration was borderline impossible, such as Whole Cake Island and Wano Country.
After all, the number of deep-cover agents capable of embedding themselves within the Big Mom Pirates was minuscule. Coupled with the sudden and violent nature of the Battle of Whole Cake Island, the undercover operative had to wait until the dust finally settled before cautiously transmitting the intelligence back to CP Headquarters.
For a long moment, the Gorosei simply stared at one another, their faces painted with a mixture of profound shock and sheer disbelief.
Whole Cake Island reduced to ruins, with even Sweet Commander-level executives and Big Mom herself sustaining injuries... This wasn't just a falling out between factions.
They had completely torn each other's throats out!
"What on earth is that bastard Aeridar thinking? Does he want to tear the global order apart?"
"Why would he actively provoke that woman? By going to war with the Big Mom Pirates, is he trying to seize a Yonko seat for himself?"
"Dammit! Why couldn't he just behave himself and remain the peaceful master of the World Neutral Zone?"
"..."
Losing their usual stoic composure, the Gorosei couldn't help but erupt into furious, venomous curses.
Maintaining the delicate balance of the seas was the absolute highest priority for the World Government. If the Chris Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates locked themselves into an all-out war of attrition, the balance they had fought so desperately to stabilize would be shattered once again, plunging the seas back into lawless chaos.
What made matters worse was the timing. The Reverie was currently underway, meaning the bulk of the Marines' military might was scattered across the globe, dedicated entirely to protecting the kings of the member nations traveling to the summit. The Marines, whose presence in the New World was already historically thin, simply lacked the spare deployment capacity to meddle in a clash of this magnitude.
What were they supposed to do? Dispatch the Guardian Knights from Mariejois or unleash their core Cipher Pol agents? [1]
Don't be ridiculous!
If they did that, what would be the point of maintaining an enforcement institution like the Marines? Besides, leaving Mariejois unguarded would cause the Celestial Dragons to absolutely lose their minds in a panic.
More importantly, the absolute ruler who sat upon the Empty Throne would never permit the five of them to make such a reckless move.
After a cascade of furious outbursts, the Gorosei gradually forced themselves to calm down, shifting their focus to analyzing the root causes of the conflict and drafting contingencies for the World Government should the war escalate.
"What exactly happened to make a man like Aeridar willing to completely burn his bridges with the Big Mom Pirates?"
"Claiming the title of 'Yonko' isn't his goal, otherwise, Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach, would never have ascended to that position in the first place!"
"We still need the Clifford Kingdom to function as the World Neutral Zone. That bastard Aeridar cannot be allowed to fall just yet!"
"Exactly. It serves as the vital staging post for both the World Government and the Marines in the New World. If the Chris Pirates are annihilated in this war, the Clifford Kingdom and the advanced technology possessed by their crew will become a carcass of fresh meat, hunted and torn apart by countless ravenous pirates. The other monsters of the sea would never tolerate letting the Chris Pirates' terrifying scientific tech fall cleanly into the hands of the Big Mom Pirates!"
"If that happens, a massive, multi-faction war that wraps around the entire world will become absolutely unavoidable!"
"Indeed. Even if we choose to intervene, the price we would pay would be devastatingly steep, with no guarantee that our eventual rewards would cover our losses."
"Dammit! It had to happen at a critical juncture like this! We can't exactly postpone the Reverie, the World Government would lose all institutional credibility!"
While the Gorosei were locked in emergency deliberations to draft a strategy, the exact same intelligence was rapidly spreading to the networks and ears of major powers across the globe.
The Marines had firmly secured the intelligence as well. Fleet Admiral Sakazuki immediately ordered a total lockdown of Marineford, raising the alert level to Level 2.
Simultaneously, he placed a direct call to the Gorosei while convening an emergency summit of top Marine brass, including Admiral Kizaru (Borsalino) and Great Staff Officer Tsuru, to dissect the unfolding crisis.
Red-Haired Shanks, ever the champion of maintaining the balance of the seas, began making immediate preparations to set sail, intent on stepping between Aeridar and Charlotte Linlin before the spark became an inferno.
Beasts Kaido was thoroughly ecstatic, roaring with laughter as he looked for a way to throw himself into the looming meat grinder just to experience a truly satisfying war.
Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach, was quietly celebrating in the shadows. He immediately charted a course toward absolute neutrality, while keeping his forces poised to swoop in and scavenge the battlefield the moment an opportunity arose.
Similarly, the Revolutionary Army found a silver lining in the chaos. They had originally planned a monumental demonstration at the Reverie to officially declare war on the Celestial Dragons, but following the capture of Sabo, their grand operational plans had been forced into an indefinite hiatus.
Now, however, they saw a golden opportunity. They began mobilizing to launch a high-stakes rescue operation for Sabo, while simultaneously plotting to exact bloody vengeance on the Chris Pirates for the brutal, merciless slaughter of their comrades.
The catastrophic battle at the Kingdom of Bivins, the utter destruction of Baltigo... every single drop of blood spilled had been carved into the very bones of the Revolutionary Army!
The very next morning, the World Economy Newspaper hit the stands. The front-page headline screamed of the Big Mom Pirates' formal declaration of war against the Chris Pirates, accompanied by a stark, haunting photograph of Whole Cake Island's pulverized urban landscape.
In an instant, it was as if a titanic, shocking wave had swept across the globe, or a single droplet of cold water had plummeted into a boiling vat of oil. The entire world exploded into absolute frenzy!
The pirates of the New World went completely wild!
To completely tear Whole Cake Island into a pile of unrecognizable rubble... in their eyes, that wasn't just a battle.
It was a definitive signal!
A signal of an open, unmitigated challenge to the rule of the Yonko!
Or rather, it wasn't that the Big Mom Pirates had declared war on the Chris Pirates, it was that the Chris Pirates had delivered a declaration of war to Big Mom's doorstep in the loudest, most violent way imaginable!
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[1] I don't think these Guardian Knights are the Holy Knights we know now, as this fic was completed in 2021.
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